ANA says 9-month net profit dives 36% to US$325 million

TOKYO -- The operator of Japan's All Nippon Airways said Friday that nine-month net profit dived by more than a third to US$325 million as a sharp decline in the yen jacked up fuel costs.

The carrier earned 33.3 billion yen (US$325 million) between April and December on sales of 1.2 trillion yen, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier.

"The main reason for the increase in operating expenses was a rise in fuel costs caused by the weakening of the Japanese yen," ANA said in a statement.

The yen's precipitous decline since late 2012, while giving a boost to Japanese exporters, has hurt its airlines by pushing up the cost of fuel, often a carrier's single-biggest expense.

ANA and domestic rival Japan Airlines — which said Friday its nine-month net profit turned down 12.2 percent to US$1.2 billion, despite better sales on rising demand for international travel — were hit by the worldwide grounding of Boeing's next generation aircraft last year following a series of problems involving its battery pack.